Ferran Soriano has moved to reassure Manchester City staff after the Premier League confirmed it has found the club guilty of almost every charge brought against them.
The chief executive sent a video message to all employees, in which he described the charges as the product of a single false accusation and reiterated that the club are the victims of a conspiracy theory.
Soriano's message was followed by a statement on the club's official website. City are continuing to protest their innocence and look set to appeal.
For a club that has spent years insisting on its innocence, the guilty verdicts represent a serious blow. Yet the response from the top has been immediate and defiant.
The move to address staff directly underlines the internal seriousness with which City are treating the situation. Soriano's video was not a public broadcast, but an internal one — a recognition that the people who work at the club day to day needed to hear from him first.
His words leave little room for interpretation. City are not backing down.
An appeal now looks inevitable, and the club's public statement echoed the chief executive's message. It is a stance that will be familiar to anyone who has followed this saga: the Blues maintain that they have done nothing wrong.
Whether that argument finds favour elsewhere remains to be seen. For now, City's position is clear — they will fight on.